Derry based Gaslight Productions, the driving force behind Channel
4s drama documentary film SUNDAY about the events
of Bloody Sunday, is the latest cultural organisation to join the
international boycott of Israel. SUNDAY was selected
for the prestigious Haifa International Film Festival, which opens
tomorrow, Saturday 21st September in Israel.

Stephen Gargan of Gaslight said, We are withdrawing our film
in support of the boycott and to alert people in Ireland and Britain
to the crimes against humanity daily being perpetrated by Israel
on the Palestinian people.

He continued, When SUNDAY was first selected
by Haifa, we were faced with a dilemma. Should we screen the film
in the knowledge that the parallels between the Bogside in 1972
and Palestine today were strikingly obvious and therefore the film
had the real chance of provoking debate within Israel about its
governments actions? Or should we join the call for an international
cultural boycott? When we fully realised that, as with the ANC in
South Africa and their Anti-Apartheid boycott, it was Palestinians
themselves that were leading the call for the world to boycott Israel,
we knew that the just course of action was to support the boycott.

Anyone who saw John Pilgers documentary Palestine
Is Still The Issue (ITV, Monday 16th) will be in no doubt
as to the extent of the injustices that the whole population there
is forced to endure. Yet while all the current media attention is
focused on Saddam Husseins flouting of UN Resolutions, there
are sadly too few media voices drawing attention to the daily implications
for Palestine of Israels flouting of UN Resolutions 242 and
338 which call on them to withdraw from the occupied territories
and respect the right of Palestine to exist as an independent state.
Now under the guise of the war on terror, Israel has
set itself on a course of destruction that will render Palestinian
national and cultural existence on Palestinian land untenable. This
intention is manifest in the systematic destruction of family homes,
utilities, cultural/art centres, and even archaeological and cultural
heritage sites.

The letter of withdrawal addressed to the Haifa Festival Director
states:

,  of the many lessons that flow from the story of Bloody
Sunday, key among them is the ethical political and long-term military
folly of governments attempting to impose military solutions on
civil and human rights problems.

We take this action in support of the Palestinian people
and in solidarity with Palestinian artists and filmmakers. It is
also done in solidarity with those within Israel (both Israelis
and Arabs) who are speaking out and acting (e.g. refuseniks) against
the governments murderous policies against the Palestinian
people.

Clearly the challenge of turning around current [ Israeli
] government policy in the climate created by a compliant Israeli
media puts enormous responsibility on cultural actors/institutions
within Israel. We hope however that people will somehow find the
courage to act and to do what they can.